Outback Steakhouse will be the primary sponsor of SHR’s No. 39 team and driver Ryan Newman for two races in 2012, and when not serving as a primary sponsor, will be an associate sponsor with placement on the B-post of the No. 39 Chevrolet Impala. Outback Steakhouse joins the U.S. Army, Quicken Loans and Tornados as primary sponsors of the No. 39 team.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Stewart-Haas Racing and Ryan Newman who are recognized for their leadership and performance on and off the track,” said Mike Kappitt, chief marketing officer, Outback Steakhouse. “It’s especially meaningful to us to continue Outback’s longstanding commitment to supporting troops and their families by being a sponsor on the No. 39 U.S. Army Chevrolet.”

Since first opening in 1988, Tampa, Fla.-based Outback Steakhouse has hosted military events and initiatives all over the country and abroad including its Thanks for Giving program, which over the last two years has donated $2 million to Operation Homefront, a nonprofit organization that supports military troops and their families, and its Operation Feeding Freedom initiative that sends teams of Outbackers overseas to feed American troops stationed abroad.

“I’ve always been a huge fan of Outback Steakhouse, and I know why it’s been voted the best steak year in and year out,” said Newman, winner of 15 Sprint Cup races, including the 50th running of the Daytona 500 in 2008. “They have a quality product that I’m very familiar with and we’re certainly proud to be representing Outback Steakhouse on the racetrack.”

In officially launching the partnership, Outback Steakhouse’s logo, along with a special message to United States Veterans, will be featured on the decklid of Newman’s No. 39 U.S. Army Chevy during this weekend’s Sprint Cup event at Phoenix International Raceway. Fittingly, the U.S. Army Chevy carries a special paint scheme during this Veterans Day weekend at Phoenix honoring Army Vietnam Veterans. A collage made up of hundreds of photos of those who served is incorporated into the car’s design.

“We’re honored to have Outback Steakhouse join Stewart-Haas Racing,” added Stewart, who in his three years as a Sprint Cup team owner has qualified for the Chase for the Sprint Cup each season while scoring 10 of his 43 career Sprint Cup victories, the most recent of which came last Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. “The company’s reputation for quality and great service is second to none in the restaurant industry, and it’s a true pleasure to be associated with a company and a product that is admired by so many, including myself. We’re looking forward to doing some great things together on and off the racetrack.”

Quicken Loans will be the primary sponsor of SHR’s No. 39 team and driver Ryan Newman for nine races in 2012, and when not serving as a primary sponsor, will be an associate sponsor. Additionally, Quicken Loans will be an associate sponsor on the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet Impala of Stewart throughout the 2012 Sprint Cup season.

To kick off this partnership, Newman and the No. 39 team will carry a special paint scheme to highlight the upcoming Quicken Loans Carrier Classic during this weekend’s Sprint Cup event at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.

The Quicken Loans Carrier Classic pits the No. 1 North Carolina Tarheels against the Michigan State Spartans in an unprecedented season-opener to the NCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball schedule, as the game will be played on the flight deck of the U.S.S. Carl Vinson on Nov. 11, 2011 – Veterans Day. The game will be held at Naval Base Coronado in the San Diego Harbor in front of 7,000 military personnel and spectators while being televised live on ESPN at 7 p.m. EST/4 p.m. PST.

“As a company that prides itself on the speed and ease of its loan process, it only made sense for Quicken Loans to partner with NASCAR – a sport built around amazingly fast cars and extremely talented drivers,” said Jay Farner, president and chief marketing officer of Quicken Loans. “More than just sponsoring Ryan Newman, we’ve found a perfect partner in Stewart-Haas Racing. Right from the first conversation with them, we knew we had found a team as driven to amaze as we are.”

Quicken Loans will share space on the No. 39 Chevrolet Impala with the U.S. Army, which has sponsored Newman since the inception of SHR in 2009.

“It’s an absolute pleasure to share the No. 39 car with the U.S. Army,” Farner added. “We’re one of the nation’s largest VA mortgage providers and a company that appreciates the selfless sacrifices our military make for us every day. It is why we are the title sponsor of the Quicken Loans Carrier Classic and why we’re leveraging the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway to promote this one-of-a-kind experience on the flight deck of the U.S.S. Carl Vinson.”

Newman, winner of 15 Sprint Cup races, including the 2008 Daytona 500, will carry Quicken Loans branding this weekend at Texas and during the 2012 Sprint Cup season.

“It’s an honor to represent the U.S. Army and it’s great to have Quicken Loans join our team, because now we can do even more to help active Soldiers and veterans alike,” said Newman, winner of the 2003 Sprint Cup race at Texas. “There’s such a parallel between what we do in NASCAR and what our Soldiers do. They go to battle, and their only goal is to win. To partner with a company as engaged with the military as SHR is something that makes us all very proud.”

This year, Quicken Loans will improve the financial situation of nearly 150,000 American families and more than 11,000 active and retired military clients by providing assistance in purchasing or refinancing their homes.

“We’re very proud to partner with Quicken Loans,” said Stewart, who in his three years as a Sprint Cup team owner has qualified for the Chase for the Sprint Cup each time while scoring nine of his 42 career Sprint Cup victories. “They’re new to the sport and we aim to make their entry into NASCAR a positive one that will grow their business, and ultimately, grow their involvement within the sport and Stewart-Haas Racing.”

In honor of Veterans Day and the millions of people who have served in the Armed Forces, Quicken Loans recently made a $111,111 (Veterans Day falls on November 11, 2011) donation to the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society, which provides financial, educational and other assistance to members of the Naval Services, family members and survivors. For more information, please visit www.QuickenLoansCarrierClassic.com.

TALK ABOUT THE WEEKEND AND YOUR OUTLOOK AT THE FINAL SHORT TRACK OF THE SEASON:
“Our performance here at Martinsville and general short tracks is pretty good and look forward to the opportunity. If seems like the fall race here in Martinsville we get rain one of the three days, so I guess I would rather have it today, then Sunday, but just look forward to the opportunity to get on the racetrack if we do get that lucky today and we will see how things go. Our Chase itself has not been anything to really brag about so, having a good weekend here at Martinsville is something that would be nice.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK NEEDS TO BE DONE TO CHANGE THE DYNAMIC FOR THE DAYTONA 500?
“I don’t know all depends on what the fans want to see. Talladega, I think there has been a definite decline in the excitement and the fans, what they want to see, I am not 100% sure what they want to see, I know there is a percentage of them that want to see the big crashes, which I am not signed up for that, but the racing was decided by .0018 of a second or something, so as long as we race cars at those types of race tracks and try to keep them within a certain speed window of 190-200 mph, we are going to be in the same type of situation that we are, no matter if you cut the spoilers, or change the restrictor plates or whatever, you are still keeping a car at that speed which is big on crashing because you are sustaining that speed all the way around the race track instead of a place like Michigan where your top speed is about the same but your mid-corner speed is significantly down, so I don’t know I mean, I would rather not use my opinion on that because it has not been taken into consideration so many other times.”

WHY IS IT THAT MARTINSVILLE IS SO DIFFICULT AND THE LAST PLACE FOR PEOPLE TO GET USED TO AND GET THE HANG OF? “I think for the most part we don’t spend our time thinking about it or doing it, we come to the shortest track, I guess it is not the exact shortest but anyway, we come to the shortest, short style flat track twice a year, Martinsville and Richmond are the two shortest flat tracks that are like our short track, growing up days. My point is we spend so much time at those mile-and-a-half race tracks where the speeds higher and you have a different balance, you have a different car feel, that it is not something that we spend a lot of time working on or working with. I think there are some guys that find it challenging, we have been very fortunate that we have a good baseline set-up package for these types of short tracks and I think it is more just a matter of where you place most of your effort, as far as the season goes.”

IF YOU ARE GOING TO A NASCAR THEMED HALLOWEEN PARTY, WHAT DRIVER OR OWNER WOULD YOU DRESS-UP AS PAST OR PRESENT?
“I guess the no brainer for me would be to dress up like Sheriff Helton, saw him in the commercial there at Charlotte week, he is the sheriff and I am pretty sure no one would mess with you at the Halloween party”

The Talladega-Texaco Walk of Fame in downtown Talladega is both a focal point saluting NASCAR’s greatest names and a tribute to one of racing’s brightest stars – the late Davey Allison. Developed in 1994, the Talladega-Texaco Walk of Fame has inducted one active driver and up to two inactive drivers since 1995 based on the fans’ vote chosen from a ballot of nominees selected by strict guidelines.

This year’s active driver honoree, Newman, 33, is not your ordinary NASCAR driver. A graduate of Purdue University, Newman not only has immense talent behind the wheel, he also has an in-depth understanding of what a car is designed and built to do on the racetrack. It is that combination that has made him one of the most successful and respected figures in modern motorsports.

After graduating from Purdue in 2001 with a degree in vehicle structure engineering, the South Bend, Ind., native followed his heart and his talent to the racetrack and NASCAR’s premiere division – the Sprint Cup Series. Known for his ability to qualify at the head of the class, Newman has scored at least one pole position in 11 consecutive seasons. His biggest career victory came in February 2008 when he won the 50th Running of the Daytona 500 while driving for Penske Racing. Now driving the No. 39 for Stewart-Haas Racing, Newman has collected 47 poles and 15 victories.

When not on track, the avid outdoorsman focuses his attention on the efforts of the Ryan Newman Foundation.

Inactive driver nominee, Alfred “Speedy” Thompson was one of the most successful drivers of the late 1950′s. He made 198 starts from 1950 – 1971, winning 20 races along with scoring 78 top-fives, 106 top-tens, and 20 poles.

Over the course of the 1957 season, Thompson made 38 starts, notching two wins, 16 top five finishes, and 22 top ten finishes. He earned four poles, won almost $27,000, and his average finish position was 10.2.

In over 21 years of racing, Speedy started 198 races, posting 105 top ten finishes, of which 77 were top fives and 20 were victories. Speedy earned just shy of $115,000 over his career, but for four consecutive seasons, the only four he raced anywhere near a full schedule, he was the third greatest stock car racer in the country.

Thompson left the sport as a pioneer in stock car racing and is considered to be among the top 50 greatest NASCAR drivers in history.

Thompson passed away April 2, 1972.

Past active driver inductees have included Dale Earnhardt, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Ernie Irvan, Dale Jarrett, Bill Elliott, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Bobby Hamilton, Ricky Rudd, Mark Martin, Kyle Petty, Darrell Waltrip, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Bobby Labonte, Morgan Shepherd and Kasey Kahne. Richard Petty and Benny Parsons were the first inactive drivers to be inducted, later joined by Alan Kulwicki, Cale Yarborough, Ned Jarrett, Buddy Baker, David Pearson, Junior Johnson, Harry Gant, Lee Petty, Tim Flock, Fireball Roberts, Buck Baker, Joe Weatherly, Red Byron, Bobby Isaac, Fred Lorenzen, Fonty Flock, Herb Thomas, Terry Labonte, Rex White, Jack Smith and Jim Paschal.

The first inductees – “ Alabama Gang” drivers Bobby Allison, Donnie Allison, Red Farmer and Neil Bonnett – were inducted by decree of the board.

In the park, Davey Allison is remembered with a large marble monument, while drivers inducted into the Talladega-Texaco Walk of Fame have bronze plaques placed around the park, accessible by walkways that form the shape of Talladega Superspeedway. For additional information, visit www.talladegawalk.com.

“Tickles me pink,” Newman said Thursday when asked about racing at night. “I really enjoy night racing. I always have. It’s fun to come here and be at home and race on a Saturday night. I’ve always enjoyed night racing from my very first quarter-midget races back in the day until now.

“I think the cars look faster, and you see the sparks flying, it’s not 120 degrees sitting in the grandstands, and I think everybody enjoys night racing better. I’ve never seen somebody that says night racing is worse than day racing.”

Newman also hopes Saturday night brings a change in the fortunes of his No. 39 Stewart-Haas Racing team. Four races into the Chase, he’s 11th in the standings, 54 points behind leader Carl Edwards.

Compared with his last three Chase runs—25th at New Hampshire, 23rd at Dover and 18th at Kansas—Newman is looking for a performance at Charlotte that’s as different as night from day.

And that’s not exactly where Newman and the Haas Automation team expected to be 30 percent of the way into the Chase.

After ending up on the wrong side of a fuel-mileage gamble at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill., cutting a tire late in the race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, and having to fight an ill-handling car last week at Dover (Del.) International Speedway, Newman has brought home finishes of eighth, 25th and 23rd, respectively, and his road to the championship is now more of a mountain.

Not to say it can’t be done. It’s just a little tougher.

Entering this week’s Hollywood Casino 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Newman, crew chief Tony Gibson and the rest of the Haas Automation team know they must exit the 1.5-mile oval with a good finish if they are to have any chance of competing for the championship.

And there is a little bit of hope when one takes a gander at the statistics.

Since Newman finished 15th in the June Sprint Cup Series race at Kansas, the No. 39 team has been strong on “intermediate” tracks like Kansas, which are 1.5 or 2 miles in length. Newman finished sixth in June at the 2-mile Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn and followed that up with a fourth-place result later that month at the 1.5-mile Kentucky Speedway in Sparta. In the return trip to Michigan in August, Newman finished fifth.

Despite a disappointing 20th-place result in September at the 1.54-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway, Newman opened the Chase with an eighth-place result at Chicagoland. All told, Newman has finished eighth or better in four of the last five intermediate track races.

That’s good news for the No. 39 team, not only at Kansas, but also Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth and Homestead-Miami Speedway – all 1.5-mile tracks left to be run during the remainder of the Chase.

On top of all that, Newman knows how to win at Kansas as his ninth career Sprint Cup Series victory took place in October 2003 at the 1.5-mile oval while driving for Penske Racing. Bill Elliott dominated that race, leading four times for a race-high 115 laps, but Newman and crew chief Matt Borland (now vice president of competition at SHR) gambled on fuel and completed the final 65 laps without a pit stop. Newman took the lead from Jeremy Mayfield on lap 240 and never looked back as he led the final 28 laps en route to victory.

So while the Chase may not have started the way Newman and the No. 39 team would have liked, the fact remains that seven races are left. And anything can happen with 2,875.5 miles of racing left, give or take a few green-white-checkered finishes.

RYAN NEWMAN, Driver of the No. 39 Haas Automation Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing:

The next two races are at 1.5-mile tracks – Kansas and Charlotte. Are you looking forward to these tracks, and what is the difference between them?

“Kansas is quite a bit different with the asphalt. The seams are the same as in the asphalt, I guess you could say. The way we have to cut them and work them, cars can be pretty sensitive there. Charlotte is a totally different animal with the banking and the speed and the tire combination that we have at that racetrack. I look forward to both of them. We had a decent car at Kansas in the first race and never got track position and the improvements we made in the car and the team at Chicago, I look forward to going back to a mile-and-a-half racetrack because that had been one of our weaknesses and I feel like it is one of our strengths right now.”

How does random luck affect you?

“The same way it has affected Tony Stewart. If we would not have run out of fuel at Chicago, and if we had not blown out a tire with five to go at Loudon, we would have been one-two in points heading into last week. He has had the fortunate side of the luck and we have had the unfortunate side of the luck, running out of fuel when he had the fuel to get to the end, and he didn’t blow a tire, we did. Those types of things. It’s a cycle. It’s part of what we do. Some things you’re in control of. The fuel-mileage thing we are in control of as a team, from my standpoint as a driver, from the guys’ standpoint, getting the car packed full of fuel, having the fuel mileage right with the carburetor and everything else. That is something we’re in control of. The tire issue, I’m not really sure how much we’re in control of that but, in the end, I feel like we have run well. We should be top two or three in points coming from seventh when we started. You have got to keep the positive side of things, but you still also have to sit there and say, ‘Man, this is not good, we need to turn the corner here.’”

As a driver, what goes through your mind when you’re in a fuel-mileage race?

“I guess it’s a different kind of teamwork because I’m relying on what Tony Gibson, my crew chief, and race engineer, what they are saying I need to do, what they are telling me, what I need to save. And I have to put that number, whether it’s in gallons or laps, into my head and figure out what I have to do in the racecar to be able to save enough fuel to make it to the end. He wants me to have enough fuel for a green-white-checkered and I’m not worried about that. There’s a happy medium of good teamwork that goes on and the performance of the driver who has to actually do what his crew chief is asking him. It’s not easy to do. There is no fuel gage, there is no speedometer, there is no way of exactly knowing what you’re doing other than what you’re doing with the pedals and the steering wheel. It’s an added challenge that I enjoy being a part of. I enjoy it more so when we have better fuel mileage than other people. It’s a fun part of what we do, at times. I don’t want every race to be like that, but I think it does add an extra level of excitement for the fans, the suspense of ‘Is he going to run out, and when and will somebody else, before him or after him?’ Those types of things.”

What makes a difference in saving fuel? Is it the driver?

“Genetics (laughs). The car balance is one thing, knowing what you have to do to conserve that energy is the other part of it. Track position is a big factor of it, too. There were times at Chicago that I was getting drafts off of guys on the straightaways just to try to save some fuel. There are several ways and different parameters that give you the opportunity to save fuel. It is a matter of figuring out how much you actually are saving as a driver and having the performance to get to victory lane and-or get the best possible finish you can.”

Ryan Newman’s fortunes in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup provide a marked contrast to the unexpected start of Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Tony Stewart.

Stewart won the first two Chase races, at Chicagoland and New Hampshire, but Newman, who entered the Chase as a higher seed than his teammate, seemed to inherit the bad luck that had plagued Stewart for most of the regular season.

Newman finished eighth after running out of fuel on the final lap at Chicagoland, and after starting on the pole at Loudon, he stumbled to a 25th-place finish and fell to 11th in the standings, 34 points behind his first-place teammate.

“They struggled really hard there four or five races before the Chase started, and I think they regrouped really strong,” Newman said of Stewart’s team. “If we had not run out of fuel at Chicago, and if we had not blown out a tire at Loudon, we would probably be 1-2 in points right now.

“He’s had the fortunate side of the luck; we’ve had the unfortunate side of the luck, running out of fuel when he had the fuel to get to the end. He didn’t blow a tire. We did. Those types of things—it’s part of what we do.”

After a rain delay halted Friday’s qualifying session, Newman, the last driver to make an attempt, posted a lap at 135.002 mph (28.213 seconds) to knock Kasey Kahne (134.763 mph), who had preceded him on the track, out of the top spot.

The Coors Light Pole Award was Newman’s third of the season and the 49th of his career. The driver of the No. 39 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet won the July race at New Hampshire from the pole.

As the fastest driver in Friday’s practice, Newman would have started from the top spot whether or not rain had washed out the session. Had he started first based on practice speed, however, he wouldn’t have gotten credit for a pole.

Kahne’s Red Bull Racing teammate, Brian Vickers, qualified before the rain delay, and his speed of 134.648 mph stood up for the third starting position. Greg Biffle (134.587 mph) will start fourth. Kurt Busch qualified fifth at 134.382 mph.

Newman made his pole-winning run on his only lap and then shut the car down, whereas many drivers had improved their speeds on a second of two laps.

“It took a little bit more (time) for my tires to fire up, as far as stick(ing), and that kind of scared me a little bit, but I ran the first lap just as I expected to, as I did in practice, and it was enough to win the pole,” said Newman, who paced qualifying for the sixth time at the Magic Mile.

“Our car was typically quicker on the first lap and not the second in practice. I was glad I got him on the first lap, and (crew chief Tony) Gibson said, ‘Shut her down,’ and that was a good sign for me.”

The session stalled with five cars left on the grid when Juan Pablo Montoya declined to take to the track for his qualifying lap in a light rain. Montoya sat on pit road, as did the four cars behind him, including the No. 48 Chevrolet of five-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson.

“Send out the 48, if he’s so brave,” Montoya said.

Instead, NASCAR sent out jet dryers, and though a light mist continued, the track dried enough to resume. Montoya posted a lap that was 27th fastest at the time (31st at the end)—and wasn’t happy about it.

“Our car was fast enough to sit on the pole, and we’re 27th,” Montoya said. “It’s a freaking joke.”

Johnson followed with a lap fast enough to secure the 10th starting position. Chase leader Kevin Harvick will start sixth.

The 12 Chase drivers will start as follows: Newman (first), Kurt Busch (fifth), Harvick (sixth), Jeff Gordon (seventh), Kyle Busch (eighth), Johnson (10th), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (12th), Brad Keselowski (16th), Tony Stewart (20th), Carl Edwards (23rd), Matt Kenseth (27th) and Denny Hamlin (28th).

Steve Park and TJ Bell failed to qualify.

For the South Bend, Ind., native and everyone else at SHR, there’s no doubt it was a magical weekend at the track known as The Magic Mile. After earning the pole position in qualifying on Friday afternoon, Newman went wire to wire – driving from his No. 1 starting spot to victory lane – for his 15^th Sprint Cup win, his third at New Hampshire and his first in 2011.

The win, which helped secure Newman a spot in this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship, served notice to his competitors in the garage that Newman and his No. 39 Haas Automation team would be both determined and daring as they compete and contend for the 2011 title.

During that July race, crew chief Tony Gibson made a gutsy call to keep Newman’s superfast No. 39 Chevrolet out front rather than pit under caution. Only once during the 301-lap race did Gibson call for a four-tire change. In the end, Newman pitted for the final time on lap 217, and Gibson spent the remaining 84 laps urging his driver to save fuel at every opportunity.

The bold call paid off and landed Newman & Company in victory lane for the first time in 47 races. Newman led six times for 119 laps, and it was just the fourth time in his 10-year career that he had won from the pole position.

The win was all part of a banner and history-making weekend for SHR. Newman and teammate-team owner Tony Stewart started 1-2 and finished 1-2. The last time a team started 1-2 and finished 1-2 was Hendrick Motorsports in the 1989 Daytona 500. However, the last time a team started 1-2 and finished 1-2 with the same drivers in the same order was back on April 7, 1957, at North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway with DePaolo Engineering. There, Fireball Roberts won from the pole while teammate Paul Goldsmith started second and finished second.

Now, as the Sprint Cup Series makes its return to New Hampshire Motor Speedway this weekend for the second race in the Chase, the No. 39 team has set as its goal a return visit to the 1.058-mile flat track’s victory lane.

After a solid eighth-place effort in the Chase’s first race at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill., Newman is now seventh in the standings, but tied with sixth-place Brad Keselowski, 14 points arrears leader Kevin Harvick. Keselowski gets the sixth spot because he has three wins this season, compared to Newman’s one trip to victory lane.

Perhaps there’s no better racetrack for Newman to continue his ascent in the point standings than New Hampshire. In 19 starts at Loudon, he has three wins (September 2002 and 2005, July 2011), six top-five finishes and 13 top-10s.

And not only is the track the site of Newman’s most recent Sprint Cup win, statistically speaking, it is one of his best tracks in the 10-race Chase.

In fact, the Magic Mile ranks second among the 10 venues in both average start and average finish for the Purdue University engineering graduate. Newman, with five poles in 19 starts at New Hampshire, has an average starting position of 8.5. His average finish is 12.4, just slightly bettered by his 10.9 average finish at Dover (Del.) International Speedway.

For Newman and his Gibson-led race team, the key over these final nine races is the same consistency which the team has demonstrated throughout the course of the 2011 season – the same consistency that helped the team earn a berth in the Chase. In 27 races, Newman has one win, two poles, eight top-five and 14 top-10 finishes. He has completed 99.3 percent of the laps run thus far this season and has not posted a DNF (did not finish).

With two consecutive top-10s – both eighth-place efforts at Chicagoland and Richmond (Va.) International Raceway – and four top-10s in the last five races, Newman and the No. 39 Chevrolet appear headed in the right direction.

And with a return trip to New Hampshire’s Magic Mile on tap for this weekend, don’t be surprised if Newman & Company has something up its proverbial sleeve to relive and repeat that magical moment from July in hopes of continuing its march up the Sprint Cup standings toward another history-making milestone – Newman’s first Sprint Cup Series championship.

RYAN NEWMAN, Driver of the No. 39 Haas Automation Chevrolet Impala for Stewart-Haas Racing:

You have three wins at New Hampshire, including your most recent one in July. It’s also one of your best racetracks in the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship. What makes you so good at New Hampshire?
“New Hampshire has always been a good place for me. I’m not 100-percent sure why. It’s the place of my first win, when I hadn’t won in a long while, 70 some races. I won again there. This past July, we were able to qualify and finish 1-2 at Stewart-Haas. So, I really look forward to it, obviously. For whatever reason, and I still don’t know the answer as to why, I enjoy Loudon. Don’t get me wrong, but I have no idea why we have been as good as we are there. I will say that the track – you have to be – it’s a real finesse racetrack. And that’s why I don’t get it. I mean, I love slamming a car into the racetrack, 24 degrees of banking, being able to bottom out and being able to drive it in harder because the racetrack will allow you to do that. At Loudon, you cannot do that. I think, at the same time, though, if you look at myself and (Tony) Stewart and (Jeff) Gordon, you’ve got to know that limit of when the car is right on the edge. I think dirt-track racing has a little bit to do with it. Not to say that other guys haven’t been good there, I just think my background and what I’ve raced in the past has really helped me to have that mixture of patience and aggressiveness and finesse and knowing when to push buttons, which I think you need to have at New Hampshire.”

You’re taking the same car that you took to New Hampshire in July, and you obviously had a good set-up for the track just a couple of months ago. What are the keys to running well at Loudon?
“I look forward to going back from a car standpoint. We have that on our side. Our short-track program at Stewart-Haas Racing has been our strength – it has been our bread and butter. If you look at the 39 team’s stats, we are really good on the short tracks. To have that finish in July – to finish 1-2 – and just our consistency in general, recently, makes it a place we really look forward to going back to this weekend. Loudon is a track where, if you have the car good on Friday, then more than likely it’s going to stay right for Sunday. More than likely, you can transfer your qualifying effort into a solid run on Sunday. You can’t overdrive the car there very much because it’s so flat. I’ve always said it’s the birthplace of track position. It’s a relatively short race. Basically, you only need to stop for fuel two, maybe three times, depending on cautions. You don’t get a whole lot of opportunities to work on your racecar. You start up front (and) you have a good chance of staying up front. Back in July, Gibson made a lot of great strategy calls that put us in position to stay out front and eventually win. He made gutsy calls on two tires to give us track position and save fuel. And in the end, we had just enough of everything to get that first win for the season. It was a huge momentum- and confidence-builder for our team. It was a very pivotal win for us, and if we could come close to duplicating that in the second race of the Chase, it’s something we would all be very proud of.”

One race in the 10-race Chase for the Championship is in the books, and the No. 39 team came away with a top-10 finish. What does that eighth-place effort mean to you and your team, and do you have momentum going into this weekend?
“We’ve been much more consistent this year, and right now we’ve put together a good string of top-five and top-10 finishes that have come at the right time for our team. That’s actually one of the things about Monday’s finish at Chicago that I’m especially proud of. I’m really proud of our team. I’m really proud that we were able to go to a mile-and-a-half racetrack where we had run well at in the past, but we didn’t at all last year. We really struggled at those types of racetracks and, obviously, they are a major part of the Chase. So, Monday was a good finish and I really can’t complain, other than saying where we finished Monday was the worst we had run all day long. It was a huge improvement for us, overall. We should have been third with a little better fuel mileage, and that would have been an awesome way to start the Chase. But, regardless, it was a really good day and I think it was a momentum- and confidence-builder for us going into the second race of the Chase.

“For us, we just have to keep doing what we’re doing. According to a lot of people, we’re not on the radar and I’m OK with that. We have the opportunity to win a championship and we just have to stay focused and do our best to get the best finishes we can each and every week.”

Your first career Sprint Cup win also came at New Hampshire. What do you remember about that particular race, and what did it do for your confidence?
“I remember that I was trying to lap Sterling Marlin, who was the points leader at the time. Kurt Busch was giving me little love taps down the straightaways (and) corners. Never really shook me loose, just made me realize he was there. We all know the track is one of the most difficult to pass at. I think it was a little more difficult back then, even more so than today to pass. I had Kurt breathing down my back. I forget what lap number it was that the rain finally came. I had virtually no brakes left in the racecar. We had air in the (braking) system. I was pumping the snot out of the pedal down the straightaway just trying to get the car to slow down. Between trying to lap the guy who’s leading the points and having Kurt breathing down my back, it was textbook. I couldn’t have asked for the rain any sooner because I needed it when it came and it worked out for us.

“It was big for our confidence. That was our second win as a team because we had won the (non-points) All-Star Race before that. We felt we had been knocking on the door several times. We were close at Richmond earlier in the year – ran second to Stewart. We had good racecars every week. I was inexperienced. You have a lot of drive to get that first victory, that first points win, not that I don’t now. Even though it wasn’t the end of the race – we weren’t three-wide backward at the start-finish line – I was proud of the team effort going into that race, being able to hold off Kurt, not crash Sterling, not upset in the least about getting my first victory.”